Pompeo Stonewalls Fox’s Bream When Questioned on Bolton’s Claim Trump Admin Refused Bout-Whelan Prisoner Exchange

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refused to directly answer questions about John Bolton’s claim that former President Donald Trump declined the possibility of securing Paul Whelan’s freedom by giving up Viktor Bout for him instead of Brittney Griner years later.

Fox News’ Shannon Bream interviewed Pompeo on Fox News Sunday, and she started things off with Bolton criticizing the Biden administration’s prisoner exchange last week where they traded Bout, a convicted international arms dealer, for the WNBA star. Some have objected to the prisoner swap by calling it an uneven trade, while others have panned the Biden administration for not freeing Whelan in the deal as well.

At the start of her interview, Bream focused on the fact that as Bolton denounced the Griner-Bout prisoner exchange, he claimed that the Trump White House previously rejected a chance to exchange Bout for Whelan.

“The possibility of a Bout-for-Whelan trade existed back then,” Bolton told CBS, “and it wasn’t made, for very good reasons having to deal with Viktor Bout.”

“Is that true?” Bream asked Pompeo. “And why wasn’t that deal made?”

“I do not want to talk about private conversations we had,” Pompeo replied. “Ambassador Bolton’s free to say whatever he might like, but we were very focused on getting Paul Whelan out, every American back home.”

While Pompeo said he was “glad” to see Griner released from Russian imprisonment, he bashed the Biden administration by claiming the exchange will incentivize hostile nations to take more Americans hostage and force the country into similar future prisoner swaps. Bream stayed on target with her initial question though, asking Pompeo, “is John Bolton telling the truth?”

“I do not want to comment on our internal discussions,” Pompeo stonewalled again. “We were working hard on each of the cases, including Paul Whelan’s case during my time in service…The Trump administration was always very clear: we were not going to trade bad guys for celebrities because it creates the wrong incentives for the bad guys as we go forward. It’s not good for American national security. It’s not good for people who are traveling across the world.”

Watch above via Fox News Sunday.